Exorcist Road is a hybrid serial killer/demonic possession/locked-room mystery rolled into a fast-paced and gripping read. Fourteen year old Casey has attacked his family with a burst of brutal strength. His parents call his Uncle Danny who is also a Chicago police detective for assistance. Unthinkingly, Danny brings along his partner, Jack, an in-your-face, intimidating Neanderthal-type cop who is immediately suspicious. The suspicion comes from the fact that Chicago is currently haunted by the Sweet Sixteen Killer – am maniac who kidnaps and viciously murders 16-year old girls. With Casey’s display of superhuman strength, Jack thinks Casey is a strong suspect in the murders that involve ripping the girls apart. Danny maintains a certain level of initial control as he and his partner recruit two parish  priests to assess whether Casey is possessed by a nasty demon (who is capable of torturing the boy’s body with unbelievable contortions – and then heal him within minutes afterword). The demon, if indeed the boy is possessed, is also clairvoyant and can “read” an individual’s inner most secrets just by touching them.

The action explodes within the first few pages and does not lag. What I wrote in my first paragraph above is revealed within the first 10% of the book. However, the pace of the revelations never feels rushed. The narrative is one jolt after another. The story is told from the point of view of one of the priests, a young and newly ordained Fr. Jason Crowder, still in his twenties and relatively inexperienced at everything. The plot is actually ingenious. Jonathan Janz has a lot to live up to when you take on a possession and exorcism. You are automatically compared to William Peter Blatty – and let’s face it, there is not much you can do to outperform the possession passages in The Exorcist. Janz makes a gallant attempt, and he does insert a couple of previously unfamiliar possession “tricks” – the body contortion aspect is a good example. Even when he describes the speaking in unfamiliar tongues and yelling in a different voice, Janz manages to make the story his own.

What makes Exorcist Road a unique read for demonic possession fans is the addition of the serial killer storyline and the likely possibility that the killer is one of the main characters. The question is who? I enjoyed this added dimension – not only are you glued to the page wondering what the heck is going to happen to poor Casey, but also who is the serial killer and how this is going to play out in this strange tale. There also is a pretty nifty surprise ending which some people may see coming, but still is very satisfying.

The only real complaint I have involves the characters. Since everyone is a suspect as the killer, Janz has to make them all rather unlikable people. On top of that, when the priests, detectives, and the family are not in battle with the demon in the kid’s bedroom, the story line shifts to passages where the main characters are gathered in the hallway outside Casey’s room or in the kitchen while arguing, blaming, ridiculing and otherwise screaming at each other. When this is going on, Janz inadvertently makes the demon more interesting than the humans (who are coming across as idiots). This is a relatively minor flaw, though. Overall, the tension is unflagging as you rush to a rip-roaring conclusion. Exorcist Road is a great read. 

While I was reading Nightcrawlers by Tim Curran, I couldn’t help wondering about the cleanliness of his house. I have read a number of his works, and many involve slimy, putrid, gross, yucky…things. This one involves vaguely shaped humans living underground who were more mushroomy-fungi in consistency than flesh and bones. Oh, and these things have a knack for capturing people and dragging them deep underground in their mucous like tunnels. You get the idea. I figure this guy is either capable of wallowing in filth well beyond the capacity of the average American or he suffers from extreme contamination-themed OCD.

My overall reaction to this Curran effort is mixed. I am a fan of other books of his, especially Leviathan and Sow. But these latter pieces were novellas and Mr. Curran maintained tight control over his plot. The gruesome narratives never became so extreme as to derail the storyline. Not so with Nightcrawlers, which was punctuated with repetitive and redundant presentations of gross-out passages. The result was mind-numbing, and I became bored at times. In addition, characters are introduced who really do not propel the story. There is one elderly woman who must take up a quarter of the book, but her character seems like an afterthought. Ironically, I think she was the most interesting character in the book (and one passage involving her towards the end is quite tender). The other characters are disappointingly one dimensional. In fact, I couldn’t differentiate the male law-enforcement characters as they all tended to blend together. In the final analysis, this really didn’t matter because they were all interchangeable.

While my comments suggest that I was disappointed with Nightcrawlers, there were some fabulous sections to the book. And these sections prompted me to give it a 3 star rating instead of a lower one. Nobody does claustrophobia like Tim Curran. There are times when the characters are crawling through these underground (and, of course, slimy) tunnels that had me squirming – and wanting to take a shower. The actual plot and the final revelation of what is going on were quite impressive. There was also one particular back-story/historical account at the climax which was rather gripping – and had me wishing that Mr. Curran had written that story instead. Alas, maybe it will appear in a future work.

So, overall, a rather flawed piece, not one of Tim Curran’s best. However, he kept me engaged and the payoff elevated the novel to a pretty decent read.